Fall colours in the courtyard

Fall colours in the courtyard

The second oldest profession

Outside The Bourbon Country Cabaret in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, in the pouring rain off an alley in a crappy parking lot, a guy is actually selling car audio speakers out of the trunk of his car.

This entire market, supply chain and retail marketing still exists.

Its stunning but also a little comforting.

The second oldest profession

Chocolate avalanche

Touring the Urban Fare chocolate display and enjoying a huge pile of Callebaut chunks.

Chocolate avalanche

All good

Slip sliding away.

All good

Sweeny Todd

Ecstatic about his new coif.

Sweeny Todd

On the train turntable at Roundhouse

On the way in from the airport.

Charlie riding in style.

On the train turntable at Roundhouse

Swings and roundabouts

Getting Charlie swingin on the way to our house ... Fight that jet lag.

Swings and roundabouts

Rellies

Off to the airport to pick up my sister and nephew from the airport. Bringing the boy back on the Canada Line because he likes trains.

I have to admit that I'm pretty excited to see him. He can walk and talk now and is almost a human being. I have purchased a very belated birthday present for him and, dare I say it, am actually looking forward to playing with him.

I may finally be turning into an uncle. More surprisingly, I may be giving a small child more than a passing glance.

Check this space on Monday to see how quickly this warm feeling fades.

Insiders are giving it very short odds.

Rellies

Wendel's cookies on display

D&D by her large Wendel's cookies display at Urban Fare in downtown Vancouver.

Wendel's cookies on display

Commuting home

It is really the simple things that remind you how fortunate you are.

Commuting home

Night sight

Always get a slight and somewhat childish pleasure out of being sober around large groups of drunken strangers. Wrapping up four nights of gigs in the suburbs at a bar and saw people in various stages of intestinal distress, overindulged duress and drunken arrest on my way from the suburban gig to home, downtown.

I've recently seen the all-too-real and grisly aftermath of youthful overestimation of one's own skills behind the wheel; and therefore I thank the constabularies of Pitt Meadows, Coquitlam, Burnaby and Vancouver for demonstrating their skills last night: dealing with our nation's weaknesses in the wee hours of the morning.

They are our city's social sanitation engineers:

Dealing with bad decisions smeared across our streets.

Night sight